Columbia Power Technologies LLC announced Tuesday that it has successfully launched a wave energy prototype in Puget Sound.

The company also closed on a portion of a planned $2 million venture capital round, which CEO Reenst Lesemann hopes to complete in the next couple of months.

Corvallis-based Columbia Power, a subsidiary of Charlottesville, Va.-based Greenlight Energy Resources, was formed five years ago to commercialize wave buoy technology developed by Oregon State University researchers.

The company launched a buoy, code-named SeaRay, which uses a new technology that the company expects will extract twice the amount of energy from ocean waves compared with other technologies under development.

The buoy will be tested through May. The company is also testing a new generator.

"We have to get our full-scale design finished and certified this year," Lesemann said.